Topic: Blind Boy Fuller Lyrics

[Blues Vintage]

Some suggestions,

2.2 Said I'll do anything
3.2 Said I'll do anything

5.1 then I'll fill it full of gasoline

[dj]

I hear "fill it full of gasoline". 

[Johnm]

Thanks, Prof Scratchy and Harry and dj for the lyric catches.  I have made the changes.  Thanks!
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I'm finding a lot of low-hanging fruit in these threads--lyric transcriptions that were either fully completed and never entered in Weeniepedia, or ones so close that they only require a little bit of listening to complete.  Three like that that I have entered in Weeniepedia are Blind Boy Fuller's "Big Bed Blues", "Ten O'Clock Peeper" and "Three Ball Blues".
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
There was a request for help with lyrics to "I'm Climbin' On Top Of The Hill" back in 2018 from a non-native English speaker who never received the help he wanted.  I don't know if he ever returns to the site, but I sure like the song.  Blind Boy Fuller is capoed up, playing in E position in standard tuning, and his seconding guitarist is playing A position, standard tuning, without a capo, while often voicing his A chord above Fuller in pitch, doing a D shape up at the ninth fret a la Lemon Jefferson or Bo Carter.  Does anyone know who the seconding guitarist is?  The JSP Fuller set Vol. 1 shows it as a solo track, which it certainly is not.  Evidently, they think Rev. Davis may have been in the studio with Fuller the next day, but this player does not sound like Rev. Davis to me--he's nowhere near as flashy as Rev. Davis tended to play when seconding Fuller on other tracks.  I'd appreciate some help with the bent bracketed place in the lyrics.  Here is "I'm Climbin' On Top Of The Hill":



Y' needn't come runnin', screamin' and crying, you know you mistreat me, woman, now you's off my mind
REFRAIN: Go on, papa got your places filled
Well, I can't be worried, I'm climbin' on top of the hill

When I tried to love you, you wouldn't pay me no mind, you could spend my dollars, like you spend my dimes
REFRAIN: Go on, papa got your places filled
Then I can't be worried, I'm climbin' on top of the hill

You know I told you, long time ago, that you had to reap, everything you sow
REFRAIN: Reap on, papa got your places filled
Then I can't be worried, I'm climbin' on top of the hill

SOLO (Spoken:  Play that thing for me, boy.  I'm gonna try to sing it--best I can)

A nickel is a nickel, a dime is a dime, house full of women, ain't nary one mine
REFRAIN: Go on, papa got your places filled
Then I can't be worried, I'm climbin' on top of the hill

You know I told you, times and times again, I wouldn't be your enemy, rather be your friend
REFRAIN: Go on, papa got your places filled
Then I can not be worried, I'm climbin' on top of the hill

I done start to climbin', I don't need you now, I ain't fixin' to let you, pull me back down
REFRAIN: Go on, papa got your places filled
Then I can't be worried, I'm climbin' on top of the hill

SOLO

Edited 7/27 to pick up correction from banjochris

All best,
Johnm

[Prof Scratchy]

Could it be ‘I don’t start to braggin’  ‘?

[dj]

Bull City Red (Oh Red, George Washington) was with Fuller and Davis at the same session.  He's better known as a washboard player, but during that July 1935 New York session he recorded 8 songs (2 unfortunately unissued) accompanying himself on guitar.  He'd be a good bet for the second guitar player on I'm Climbin' On Top Of The Hill.

As for your bracketed word, I hear crabbin' or grabbin'.

[Johnm]

Thanks Prof and dj for the lyric suggestions.  It does sound more like "crabbin'" than "grabbin'" to me--there's a bit of a hard c sound at the front end of the word, so I'm going to go with "crabbin'".  Thanks for the help.

I had noticed in the JSP set that they show Bull City Red in the studio with Fuller and Rev. Davis two days after "I'm Climbin' On Top Of The Hill" was recorded, and I think, based solely on the aural evidence, Bull City Red seems a likelier second guitarist on the song than does Rev. Davis.  Thanks for the suggestion, dj.  I'll make that tentative ID of him in Weeniepedia.

All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

I would suggest
I done start to climbin'
for the start of the last verse, which would go along with the end of the line.

Also, for the first line of the chorus, I also offer the suggestion "Papa got to play this fiddle" – phonetically that's a difficult line to parse and John, what you have makes sense, too, but I always heard it as that and that by playing his guitar he's not worried about her any more.
Chris

[Johnm]

Thanks for the suggestions, Chris.  I do think the opening of the last verse is "I done start to climbin'", as you have it, and I will make that change.  It also makes sense of the ending of that line.  I re-listened to the choruses, and I'm consistently hearing a strong "y" in the word that follows, "got", and am hearing "your" clearly there throughout.  I also don't hear any "d" sound in the middle of the word that begins with "f" at the end of the line, nor do I hear two syllables there.  I'll keep that line of the chorus as is.  Thanks!

All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

Yeah I wasn't sure about that suggestion either, just wanted someone else to listen with that in mind!
Chris

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I just entered Blind Boy Fuller's "Blacksnakin' Jiver" in Weeniepedia.  It had been transcribed several years ago, and it wasn't a Fuller tune that I remembered at all.  You can listen to it below.  I guess my question is, can you think of any 12-bar blues that crams in more lyrics than this song?  I don't know another one like it, unless there is some other Fuller song or Rev. Davis tune that has exactly the same phrasing, melody, and progression.  It's really an odd one.



I woke up this early mornin', mama, someone was jiving me, and if you don't want me, mama, drop that jivin' and let me be
I'm gonna wake up some of these mornings, and 't's going to be so, I've got to kill you, mama, 'cause I'm a bad mother-fuyer, don't you know?
REFRAIN: I'd rather be bit by a rattlesnake, baby, then to let you jive poor me

Says, my baby, she went away and she left me, I didn't want her to go, she had the nerve to tell me, said, "I don't want you no more."
"But that's all right now, mama," I said, "that's all right for you. I did everything in the world I could, trying to get along with you."
REFRAIN: I'd rather be bit by a rattlesnake, mama, then to let you jive poor me

Said, I bought you all last Summer, I bought you plenty of clothes, and when Winter done come you had put me out in the cold
But you know now, mama, I said, "That ain't no way to do. The same way you jivin' me, someone gonna jive you too."
REFRAIN: I'd rather be bit by a rattlesnake, baby, then to let you jive poor me

Said, I dumped sugar all the Summer, and loaded coal all the Fall, and had to go out on Sunday, mama, in my overalls
You know now, mama, said, "That ain't no way to do. There's a hearse and a undertaker waitin' right there for you."
REFRAIN: I'd rather be bit by a rattlesnake, baby, then to let you jive poor me

SOLO

All best,
Johnm

[Blues Vintage]

It kinda sounds like the song "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water".

[Johnm]

You're right, Harry--that similarity hadn't occurred to me.  Thanks for pointing that out.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Blind Boy Fuller recorded "Night Rambling Woman" at a session in New York City on June 19, 1940, accompanying himself out of G position in standard tuning.  This may be the very last piece he recorded.  His playing is as assured as ever, but his voice sounds tired--maybe I'm just interpreting it that way because I know he died relatively soon after the session, in 1941.  The tagline to the last verse is at odds with the remainder of the lyrics in the song, in an odd way.  Here is "Night Rambling Woman":



Little girl, little girl, little girl, just as sweet as she can be
I said, little girl, little girl, little girl, she's as sweet as she can be
Says, and I begin to wonder--why don't you think of me?

Says, the time I need you, baby, that's the time you gone
Well, each time I need you, mama, I said, that's the time you gone
Says, and the way you treat me, baby, gonna cause me to weep and moan

Well, you leave me every mornin', stay out all night long
Well, you leave me every morning and you stay out all night long
Says, and you come back jivin', baby, said that you ain't treatin' me wrong

Said, my left eye jump, baby, and my flesh begin to crawl
Says, my left eye jump, mama, and my flesh begin to crawl
Says, that's a mighty true sign, sugar, there's another man kickin' in my stall

Sometime I feel happy, then again I feel so blue
Sometime I feel happy then again I feel so blue
Said, I wanna see that girl I'm lovin', 'cause she was so kind and true

All best,
Johnm